Tapping into our God-given gifts makes us all Imagoes Dei

Ricky John Bergeron
June 2, 2008
June movie releases
June 4, 2008
Ricky John Bergeron
June 2, 2008
June movie releases
June 4, 2008

One of my favorite movies is entitled “Amadeus.” Amadeus is the middle name of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The name, in Latin, means “Lover of God.”

The story is told through the eyes of the Italian composer Antonio Salieri.


Salieri’s one desire was to join all the great Italian composers of the past whose music glorified God. As a young boy of 16, he went to church and made a bargain with God.


He prayed that God would make him a great composer and, in return, he would strive to live a life of virtue and be better than other people. He promised God, “I will honor you with much music all the days of my life!”

Salieri felt God had accepted his bargain, his prayer. God was saying to him, “Bene. Go forth, Antonio. Serve me and humankind and you will be blessed.”


“Grazie,” the Italian composer replied, “I am your servant for life.”


Shortly afterward, he met the Emperor who gave him a job. Salieri took this as a sign that God accepted his bargain. Basically, Salieri was a good composer.

Then he meets Mozart. The first time they met, Mozart was rolling around on the floor with Constanze, a lady of the court. He was supposed to be giving a concert for the Emperor. When Salieri hears Mozart play, the Italian said, “I was suddenly frightened. It seemed to me that I had heard a voice of God and that it issued from a creature whose own voice I had also heard and it was the voice of an obscene child.”


Salieri does not understand what is happening. He dedicated his whole life to God and can only produce respectable work. Then Mozart comes along and produces exquisite music, yet his personal life is all over the place. Salieri describes his feelings in these words, “Tonight at an inn somewhere in this city stands a giggling child who can put on paper, without setting down his billiard cue, causal notes that turn my most considered ones into lifeless scratches.”


Mozart was the “Imago Dei,” the manifestation of God in music. Through Mozart’s music, God’s glory appeared.

To Salieri this was not fair. He had worked hard and dedicated his life to God.

Yet God manifested himself through Mozart and not him. So he declares war on God.

In Salieri’s own words, “My life acquired a terrible and thrilling purpose. The blocking of God in one of his purest manifestations. I had the power.

God needed Mozart to let himself in the world, and Mozart needed me to get him worldly advancement. So it would be a battle to the end – and Mozart was the battleground.”

The rest of the story centers on the battle.

In John’s gospel, Jesus tells Philip and all of us that he is the “Imago Dei.” He says, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” Those are powerful words, especially when we understand the Jewish mentality about God.

One day Moses said to God, “Please let me see the dazzling light of your presence.” God replied, “I will not let you see my face, because no one can see me and stay alive.”

Scripture scholar William Barclay says, “It may be to the ancient world this was the most staggering thing Jesus ever said.”

Yes, Jesus is the ultimate Imago Dei. Yet, in a real way all of us are Imagoes Dei. Genesis is clear that we are made after the image and likeness of God.

That means in some way, we reflect the beauty and splendor of God, not like a Mozart or even a Salieri, but in our own particular way with our own particular gifts. Let us use our gifts to reflect the presence of God within us.